Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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385. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the annual funding provided to early learning and childcare for the years 2011 to 2024 inclusive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45862/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Annual government investment in Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Aged Childcare (SAC) increased by €856m (or 340%) between 2011 (€253m) and 2024 (€1,109m).

During this time, additional funding was provided to expand the ECCE programme to two full years per child, to fund the introduction of, and ongoing enhancements to, the Access and Inclusion Model and National Childcare Scheme (NCS), along with a broad range of additional measures to support capacity, access, affordability and quality of provision.

The greatest year on year increase in the annual budget allocation during this time was in 2023, when my Department secured a €1 billion budget allocation, 5 years ahead of the First 5 2028 target. This represented a 51% increase on the 2022 allocation, and which funded the introduction of the Core Funding model, the introduction of universal National Childcare Scheme (NCS) payments, and the discontinuation of the practice of deducing hours in pre-school and school against NCS hours.

The budget allocation I secured for 2025 will provide for unprecedented investment of €1.37 billion, which represents an additional investment of €266m, or 24% when compared with 2024, and which will continue to provide improved affordability for parents, facilitate capacity growth within the sector, and ensure additional supports for children and families who are experiencing disadvantage.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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386. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost of increasing funding to the core funding scheme by 10%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45863/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Core Funding is a grant to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and/or School Age Childcare (SAC) providers towards their operating costs. The majority of Core Funding is distributed based on a service's capacity - the opening hours, opening weeks and the age group of children for whom services are provided as well as number of places available.

The introduction of Core Funding in 2022 brought a significant increase in investment for the sector, with €259 million of funding paid directly to services in year 1 of the scheme, of which €210.8 million was entirely new funding.

One of the key objectives of Core Funding is to support the sector as a whole with the introduction of direct supply-side funding, in addition to the ECCE programme and the NCS, to create a more stable and sustainable financial environment.

This funding, which increased by 11% (to €287 million) in year 2, increased again by another 15% in year 3 (to €331 million). A 10% increase to the current programme year costs of €331.04 million would be €33.104m.

The current funding allocation facilitates the following changes from 2 September:

The Base Rates for all age groups are increasing with larger increases in funding for places offered to children under the age of three. All providers currently signed up to Core Funding will receive a higher payment going forward to support their day-to-day costs.

The flat rate for services registered on the Tusla Early Years Register as sessional-only is increasing from €4,075 to €5,000. This will strengthen supports to sessional-only services, who typically operate for shorter hours per week and fewer weeks per year.

The minimum Base Rate allocation is increasing from €8,150 to €14,000. This is the minimum amount of funding a centre-based service will receive through their Base Rate. This ensures a minimum guaranteed income for services. This increase supports for smaller services and services operating in rural areas, who may be prone to fluctuations in demand.

Core Funding makes a significant additional contribution to services’ income, allowing them to better absorb increased costs such as staffing and energy costs.

Core Funding is set to rise to a minimum of €350.64 million in programme year 4 (September 2025 – August 2026), before additional funding ring-fenced to support the outcomes of further Employment Regulation Order (EROs) agreed by an independent Joint Labour Committees (JLC) is included. The cost of increasing this allocation by 10% would be €35.064 m.

The current proposed additional funding to support the outcomes of the JLC process is worth €45 million in year 4. Increasing this additional element of the funding by 10% would cost €4.5 million.

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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387. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost of increasing the childminding development grant by 10%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45864/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Childminding Development Grants were introduced in 2004 as part of the Childminding Initiatives, administered through the City and County Childcare Committees. The grant is designed to help childminders with the cost of safety items, equipment, play resources or minor household alterations.

Until 2023, a grant of up to €1,000 was available to cover 90% of the expenditure over two years and was paid in arrears on presentation of an expenditure report and receipts. The national funding allocation was €250,000.

In 2023, through the work being undertaken under the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021 – 2028, changes were made to the grant process. The changes to the grant were to allow for a 100% grant, available on an annual basis, with 75% of the grant paid in advance of expenditure. In addition, for the 2024 grant cycle the Childminding Development Grant funding allocation was doubled to €500,000, to assist more childminders to prepare for the opening of regulations to childminders from September 2024. The maximum grant per childminder is €1,000 per year.

The cost of increasing the total financial allocation for the grant scheme by 10% would be €50,000. Alternatively, if the allocation for 2025 were kept at €500,000, an increase in the maximum value of each grant of 10% would reduce the number of applications that could be accommodated within the annual allocation from 500 grants to 454 per year.